Politics

  United Nations / AFP The new United Nations chief Antonio Guterres said on Sunday he would like to make 2017 a year to “put peace first,” in a message heralding the new year and marking his first day as the world body’s chief. The Portuguese former prime minister, 67, took over as UN Secretary-general from South Korea’s Ban Ki-moon, inheriting ...

  Washington / AFP President-elect Donald Trump again cast doubt on a US intelligence finding that Russia meddled in the US election through computer hacking, a conclusion that led to US sanctions against Moscow. “Well, I just want them to be sure, because it’s a pretty serious charge, and I want them to be sure,” Trump told reporters at his ...

  Hong Kong / AFP Thousands of protesters, chanting “Sovereignty belongs to the people!” marched through Hong Kong on New Year’s Day to protest at the government’s legal bid to unseat some pro-democracy lawmakers. The four popularly elected legislators, who led the rally, were the latest targets of a government move which pro-democracy parties describe as a witch hunt.It came after ...

  Seoul / AFP South Korea’s impeached President Park Geun-Hye on Sunday repeated denials of involvement in a snowballing corruption scandal and said rumours have been “getting out of hand”, Yonhap news agency reported. “Rumours, stories and broadcasts have been distorted and false information has been getting out of hand,” she was quoted as telling reporters at the presidential Blue House. ...

  Kano / AFP One person was seriously injured when a suicide bomber aged around 10 blew herself up in a New Year’s Eve attack in the northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri, witnesses and aid workers said on Sunday. The girl approached a crowd buying noodles from a food vendor in the Customs area of the city around 9:30 pm on ...

  Nairobi / AFP Burundi’s environment minister was shot dead in the capital Bujumbura early Sunday, police said, the first killing of its kind since the country was plunged into political turmoil two years ago. Emmanuel Niyonkuru, 54, the country’s water, environment and planning minister, was killed shortly after midnight, according to a tweet sent by police spokesman Pierre Nkurikiye. The ...

  Moscow / AFP Russia President Vladimir Putin on Thursday announced a nationwide ceasefire deal to come into effect across Syria from midnight and that the warring parties had agreed to sit down for peace talks. The deal brokered by Russia and Turkey could represent a major breakthrough in nearly six years of war in Syria and comes a week after ...

  Moscow / AFP Russian officials probing the crash of a Syria-bound military plane said on Thursday that there was no explosion on board, but equipment was functioning abnormally when it plunged into the Black Sea. “There was no explosion on board, I can say that for certain,” said Sergei Bainetov, head of flight safety for the Russian airforce. “But an ...

  Istanbul / AFP Turkish authorities on Thursday detained a prize-winning journalist over a succession of tweets and articles for an opposition daily, state media said, as alarm grows over press freedom in the country. Ahmet Sik was detained on accusations of making “terror propaganda” and denigrating the Turkish Republic, the judicial authorities and police, according to the state-run Anadolu news ...

  Jerusalem / AFP Israel’s right wing dismissed US Secretary of State John Kerry’s speech on the conflict with the Palestinians on Thursday as a parting shot of little consequence, especially with Donald Trump soon taking office. One minister repeated his assertion that a Palestinian state will be “off the agenda” once expected ally Trump takes over, while others from what ...